HALF MOON BAY — An accomplished big-wave surfer died at Maverick’s on Wednesday while surfing waves up to 60 feet.

Sion Milosky, 35, of Kalaheo, Kauai, Hawaii, apparently drowned after enduring a two-wave hold down around 6:30 p.m., according to Maverick’s surfer Ken Collins, with whom Milosky was staying in Santa Cruz.

Collins said Nathan Fletcher, an invitee to The Jay at Maverick’s Big Wave Contest who had traveled to Santa Cruz with Milosky, went looking for Milosky on a Jet Ski shortly after he fell. Collins said Fletcher found Milosky’s body at the Half Moon Bay Harbor mouth, about a mile from the break, 20 minutes after the incident.

Milosky was named the North Shore Underground Surfer of the Year last month. He used some of the prize of $25,000 in travel funds to fly to Santa Cruz on Sunday to catch one of the last big swells of the season at Maverick’s, near Half Moon Bay.

“Sion was dominating it. He was out there catching so many waves, he was so good,” said Collins, also a Jay at Maverick’s invitee. “Everybody was like, ‘Who is that? What are you doing letting Hawaiians take over your wave?’ That’s what blows my mind the most is that he was doing all that, and then he drowned.”